Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Our First Day!

Today was our first day back at school!  Well.... our first day of "real school" :)

Monday night we got everything ready - shoes, uniform, backpack, lunchbox and red bag with 8-10 things that represent Luke to show and tell.

School starts at 7:45, but we were needing to run through Starbucks (duh!) and be there in plenty of time to get my classroom open, walk Luke to class, take a few pics, etc. so we left before the sun was up.... which stunk for pictures at home.

Flash on = washed out.
Flash off = blurry.

Oddly enough - my iPhone does a better job in these situations.


Mason (and his cowboy jammies and crazy cup) wanted to come with us.... and not just come with us - drive us. :)

And Griffin waved bye bye about 32 times :)

When we got to school the light was better and I was able to take another picture - except he was NOT in a mood to smile because he was READY to get in the classroom!

We fist bumped goodbye and he was off!  Such an independent and confident big boy :)  
Thankfully, when I picked him up he held my hand all the way back down the deck. hahaha


Meanwhile in my classroom - I had my six classes back to back for 25 minutes.  My voice was totally gone by period 3 which made the last half of the morning SUPER fun :)  I did a quick introduction of myself and went over their binders and then did a really fast and fun activity (I'm going to try and post more teacher ideas periodically for all my teacher readers!).

In their table baskets I had a few pencils and a pad of sticky notes.  On the sticky notes they had to write a "tweet" with the hashtag #mathis

They could write whatever they wanted as long as it was appropriate and 140 characters or less (just like Twitter!).  On their way out of class they stuck them on my whiteboard and then later in the day I went through and highlighted a few with little bubbles and my own hashtags in return...



Compliments always go far with me :)


In case you're not versed in middle school handwriting, the one below says #mathis fun because I get to have food in class :)  Last year I let them snack - this year it's a new policy, hence my #uhoh, #notanymore and #hangry hashtags :)




 I didn't tell them that I would be responding to them - so it will be fun to see what they think tomorrow :)

I also picked a few that I'm going to use as "discussion points" or prompts for a Math Journal....
"#mathis the universal language" - Do you agree or disagree?
"mathis not used in real life" - What do you want to be when you grow up?  Do you think you'll have to use math in your profession or home life?

Today is a full day for me and another half day for Luke - prayers that I can actually speak (and swallow - since I haven't really eaten in a couple of days!) :) hahaha  Both important functions.

Thank you for all your sweet "First Day encouragements" on Instagram and Facebook!  I appreciated all of them!!!  Y'all are so sweet :)

Don't forget that today at 8 am CST my What Griffin Wore blog goes live with new clothes!!!  We're making room for Fall over here!!!

23 comments :

  1. Soooo sweet! You are amazing! Seriously how do you do it?! I'm an elementary counselor, have one baby, and a fabulous husband but geeze this back to school stuff is kicking my toosh. Love your lesson activity!

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  2. Love this! Head back to school tomorrow- would LOVE for you to post more teacher ideas for middle school!

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  3. What a fabulous activity!! I wish I was still teaching so I could use it! Also Luke looks adorable on his first day!!

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  4. I LOVE that your birthday banner is still hanging on the wall!!

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  5. Sure will be praying you get better and turbo speed!! Luke is just precious!! Love the hashtag board.:)

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  6. Yay for Luke having a great day....I would like to go back to middle school and be in your class.!!!! Feel better!!!

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  7. You are amazing. Such sweet pics of Luke! Do you know why the new rule of no food is at your school? I'm curious because my kiddos have severe food allergies, and I wish our school would implement that policy. Have a great school year!! :)

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  8. I love math. I always tell my kids (5th and 3rd graders) that math is the universal language. Love your blog!

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  9. I've been following your blog for awhile now, and I think you are amazing. God has gifted you with many talents as a Mom, teacher, and friend (I read some of your friend's blogs too and can tell they love you to pieces). I would really appreciate your advice as a math teacher. I'm heading back to college in January to get my degree in Accounting. I haven't been in school in over 25 years and math, to say the least, was never my strong subject. Somewhere around 2nd or 3rd grade I missed important concepts that have caused me to struggle in this subject ever since. So the part of college that scares me the most is the math classes I will have to take! Do you have any suggestions of books/workbooks that I could purchase that would take me through the basics up to algebra? I've looked at the Math for Dummies books but don't know which one to get or if there might be something better to self-teach and brush up on my skills before classes start in the spring. Any recommendations or ideas are much appreciated. Good luck with this new school year and God bless your sweet family.

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  10. Love the #mathis idea! Super cute & perfect for middle school!

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  11. Love the Twitter activity! I am switching from 15 years of teaching English to being a librarian this year. I'm going to steal it for the first day with my 6th graders! Thanks for sharing. And here's to a great school year! :)

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  12. What a fun teacher you are!!! You are making me excited to go back next week!

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  13. Love the # and comments you shared with your students!!! So excited for you blog about teaching ideas. This teacher wants a classroom tour!! Happy second day of school for you and your sweet boy!

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  14. What a fun activity! #mathisfunwhenyourteacheriscool

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  15. Happy Back to School Days!! I definitely will appreciate those teacher posts-

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  16. You are quite possibly the cutest and most fun math teacher ever! I don't dislike math (in fact I was super good at it in school) but I wish I had more fun teachers like you to make it more fun and interesting! LOVE your creativeness!

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  17. You seem like such a fun teacher! :) And to be able to have scripture outside your sons classroom... LOVE it!

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  18. Oh my word!! Happy first day!! Luke looks precious and ready to take on big school!! I love your teaching tips and will be stealing allllll of them and adapting them to my French classes so keep them coming!!

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  19. This is a great idea! I will be using it tomorrow on my first day with students. Thanks! :)
    K. Cramer

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  20. I will definitely be stealing that hashtag idea for my first day back with the kiddos! Love it! #teachersrock

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  21. LOVE LOVE LOVE the hashtag idea! I'm going to do it too!

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  22. Totally stealing this! Looks like you had a great first day! Fun!

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  23. Andrea...I hate asking "where you got" something because I know people do it all the time...but I searched the ENTIRE internets...and was wondering about the sign..... could you send me in a general direction {also..please feel better soon}

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